*Note I haven't done ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING yet but I've done most of the secret levels save for House and Trauma Loop and thats just because they require a fuckton of grinding for money and idk when if I'll ever get it done.

Yeah this game is really fuckin good and I wish I wasn't such a jackass about it years ago.

When a game looks like cruelty squad you're essentially fighting an uphill battle with me, and it didn't help this came out next to a lot of other low effort cashgrab "retro indie boomer shooters!!!" that would fill the weaker sections of Realms Deep streams didn't help one bit. From what I saw this game was just a giant ironic shitpost somehow masquerading as some stupid fake deep "we live in a society" bullshit.

Not the case at all.

Cruelty Squad is unconventional. Very unconventional. But it rides the line so thin that almost everything is still readable, and the gameplay behind all that is addicting as shit.

The game is objectively ugly on purpose. But everything on the hud is still readable and you can easily understand what's going on. Yes, I'll admit some of the bright colors did get to me and gave me a headache after a bit at points but again it surprisingly didn't bug me as much over time.

If I were to describe this game, it would be "first person hitman with deus ex powers for schizos". You have targets on your hud, and you're tasked with killing them. How? Doesn't matter, just get it done. With a few exceptions Cruelty Squad's levels are exactly what make imsims so special, and the powers and weapons you obtain are just the cherry on top. It's funny, this game has a lot of stealth elements, but at the same time I wouldn't even totally call it a stealth game with how many points you'll probably just end up gunning people down. But you gotta go a certain way about it. You can't just play this like a doom game, you gotta be precise, take cover when it matters, go for headshots. It's incredibly satisfying and the short completion times for each levels help encourage replayability all the more.

My only real complaints if anything is that noticing enemies can be a bit hard I feel sometimes? At least in crowded areas where so many people look the same so that got annoying sometimes. The last level also felt really obtuse and bad for the sake of it. That was entirely the point I'm sure but it just felt like a slog to get through.

Finally not sure if it's like this for anyone else but this game has some weird performance degradion over time for me, at least on my system (GTX 3060). Like, when I'll boot the game up, everything is a rock solid 60+ like it should be, but usually after like 9 level loads/retries the framerate dips into the 40s and I don't know why. I THINK its because the game is still trying to process stats of NPCs after their death on top of things like the stock markets? But I don't know, maybe this is just a me issue or something.

Other then that this has to be one of the most fun indie fpses I've played this year and I'm really upset at myself I didn't try it sooner. If you're still turned off because of the visuals or fans like I was, at least give it a try with an open mind. In terms of raw gameplay, this is a must-play for imsim fans as far as I'm concerned.

Some nice artwork and music with weak story, repetitive gameplay, and developers seemingly trying to use the cover of the 80s setting to showcase their own racist ideas while doing little to take advantage of the setting, even with opening text about taking inspiration from aspects of 80s TV that doesn't fit the game at all. I saw some Miami Vice, and I wish this was a game about going after Reb Brown's vengeance fueled biker gang.

You play as a former detective demoted to a beat cop after it is believed that he stole a senator's diamonds during a shootout at his house. Every day you are given tickets to write and possibly other tasks to perform as well as a side job you can take for the Italian mob or a black gang faction while also trying to follow the main story plotlines and running into other side events scheduled for that day. The daily tasks structure typically allows you to easily complete everything in each day except for the mafia and gang jobs that you might want to ignore or handle in different ways to balance your reputation with them and the police, cop reputation is easy to increase just by doing your tasks but activities can frequently lower the other factions reputation or might have you losing rep with one to gain with the other. One of your main police tasks a day might have you writing 5, 10, 12, etc tickets and by the days end I've typically written 20-30+ and done every main and side activity I wanted to. There is a lack of variety to everything that you are doing 90% of the time outside of story or sidequest events as all the calls to chase a criminal or tagger are identical, there is almost no variety to conversations when you write people tickets. This becomes stranger when you can take bribed and the undercover agents looking to report you for corruption always say the exact same thing so you can know which bribes it is ok to take. The main loop of writing tickets, chasing a couple criminals a day, and making an awkward mix of running and walking to maintain stamina feels like it would belong well in a more artistic project exploring the drudgery of life and work.

Portrays itself as representing a more culturally offensive 80s police film/show period but it clearly portrays black characters with much more frequent racism, as caricatures eating watermelon outside their apartment's, and as the violent criminals that you are typically running down to arrest and the only ones you are shooting as well as being much more likely to refer to every race by the most offensive terms while the white Italian mobsters are called greaseballs and meatball suckers. The cops you work with are all portrayed as on the take, racists, misogynists, as constantly harassing other cops or people, with no other characteristics making a fairly dull story worse as no one is remotely likable or interesting and it typically feels like it was written by the kind of people in their 20-30s idolizing made up versions of shows like All In the Family where they would want a modern version where Archie Bunker is the hero.

Two of the possible endings has you raising your reputation enough to join the mob or gang. though I don't really know how a fairly high profile cop and non Italian white guy just joins the mob or an all black gang typically committing low level street crimes and radio thefts.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1752188487854698635

F&H2 Termina makes me question how the indie horror scene has managed to completely eclipse whatever the AAA scene has put out in the past decade. With a distinct art style and innovative gameplay it impresses even further by being a mish mash of genres that have no business working this well together. A turn based RPG survival horror with team building mechanics is such an avant garde idea. Combat that is usually replaced with insta-kills in the RPG maker horror subgenre is what gives Termina its identity. Even notable exceptions like Peret em Heru heavily dumb down the combat and give the player items to circumvent the tedium of combat. Termina however doesn't shy away from item starvation and RNG, It is a survival horror game through and through and one that is executed to perfection.

Its relationship with its prequel F&H is also one that I've rarely ever seen before, the prequel is used like a loose historical event that twists and turns depending on what source you get your information from, which is a fascinating depiction of how time corrodes and perverts stories and people that once were very real have now been reduced to mere retellings of idealized characters.

What Is Going On In Finland.

Simply put, an unforgettable experience. Another one of those games that just blows you away once you sit through the credits contemplating everything you just played through and witnessed. I am so in love with this series and I am a little funked up individual to say the least!

After playing through the first one twice I was so pumped to dive in as my brother watched me complete my first playthrough by me screensharing through a discord call so we both got to witness all the bizarre insanity and horrific situations that ensued. After getting my ass beat time and time again in the first game I managed to have an incredible first run with this one! Albeit, mistakes were definitely made and I had to learn, but I felt more seasoned going through the ringer a few times up to this point. Decided to go with Marcoh for my character and damn was it a good choice (the good ol' 2 piece and biscuit combo for the win!).

Nearly improving from the first in everyway especially when it comes to each character's own exposition and backstory you can choose to hear from the beginning and how they get to this point. Love how many references/inspirations to other games and horror culture they have in this too! There is so much interesting lore and things happening around this crazy town of Prehevil with so many characters it is impossible to take this whole game in with one playthrough with many paths to take and people to meet and recruit. All characters have a unique playstyle and the edition of using firearms before a fight is such a game changer.

Ended up getting a full party all the way to the end and felt so damn powerful with some good gear pickups even though I lost most of my coin tosses (shittiest luck, story of my life lol). First run I managed to get Ending A and the last boss music gave me chills especially at that one part in the song that gave me PTSD flashbacks, if you know...you know...

I know they are working on another one and apparently adding even more content to this one and that just makes me so happy. I love the OST in this game and the way they bring about horror is so different then how some other games do it with jump scares, never knowing what you will run into or what they will throw at you next always makes you feel on edge and gives you that spine tingling feeling. Definitely wanna do some more runs in the near future and get the other endings, I am so damn addicted! Everyone should play this game if you are a fan of horror games and want an unforgettable experience. How did they come up with this stuff?! I love it!